Families USA's Global Health Initiative advocates for U.S. policies that advance global health research, with the goal of developing medical technologies to improve global health.
February 10, 2009
In This Issue:
Policy Updates
1. NIH Funding in the Economic Recovery Bill
News and Reports
2. Recession Endangers Funding for Disease Relief
3. The Financial Crisis and Global Health
4. The Markets’ Safest Sector Also Has Enormous Potential to Rise
5. Man Pledges $100 Million to Fight AIDS
6. Bird Flu Protein May Offer Target for New Drugs, Study Says
7. Global Health Community Commits More than $630 Million in Aggressive Push for Polio Eradication
8. Predicting the Future Spread of Infectious Disease Vectors
9. A Company Prospers by Saving Poor People’s Lives
Events
10. Follow-Up: Families USA’s Health Action 2009—Global Health Reception
11. Spotlight: The Global Fight against HIV/AIDS
12. Symposium: Biomedical Approaches to HIV/AIDS Prevention
Policy Updates
1. NIH Funding in the Economic Recovery Bill
The House passed its version of the economic recovery bill in late January. That includes $3.5 billion for NIH. The Senate version was passed today and includes $10 billion for NIH, thanks to the passage of an amendment offered by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA). The House and Senate will now appoint conference committee members to begin work on a compromise bill.
As the bill moves forward, we will keep you updated.
News and Reports
2. Recession Endangers Funding for Disease Relief
Recession Endangers Funding for Disease Relief (Oneworld.net, February 4, 2009)
“The grim state of the global economy is threatening to cut aid to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, health experts are warning.”
To read the report, click here.
3. The Financial Crisis and Global Health
The Financial Crisis and Global Health (Global Health Magazine, Winter, 2009)
“It’s hard to see your way through a storm when you’re in the middle of one. Such is the predicament of the global health community, as we sort out what the financial crisis will mean for the health of poor people in developing countries months—even years from now.”
To read the article, click here.
4. The Markets’ Safest Sector Also Has Enormous Potential to Rise
The Markets’ Safest Sector Also Has Enormous Potential to Rise (Money Morning, February 6, 2009)
“In the past few years, a strange new “defensive” asset has appeared in the market.…Considering we’ve just had the worst credit crisis in 80 years, and one of the worst-ever bear markets in stocks, the new “defensiveness” shown by biotechnology stocks is extraordinary.”
To read the article, click here.
5. Man Pledges $100 Million to Fight AIDS
Man Pledges $100 Million to Fight AIDS (NECN.com, February 4, 2009)
“A Massachusetts businessman is pledging $100 million to create a new institute to develop vaccines for AIDS and other diseases. The institute will be a joint venture between Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard and MIT.”
To read the article, click here.
6. Bird Flu Protein May Offer Target for New Drugs, Study Says
Bird Flu Protein May Offer Target for New Drugs, Study Says (Bloomberg, February 5, 2009)
“A protein that helps avian influenza replicate may be a target for new drugs against the virus and other flu strains, according to two studies in the journal Nature.”
To read the article, click here.
7. Global Health Community Commits More than $630 Million in Aggressive Push for Polio Eradication
Global Health Community Commit More than $630 Million in Aggressive Push for Polio Eradication (Ada Evening News, January 23, 2009)
“Polio has been completely eliminated in the Americas, the Western Pacific and Europe, but the wild polio virus persists in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan, and imported cases from these countries threaten other developing nations. It is in these four countries that the most serious challenges exist…”
To read the article, click here.
8. Predicting the Future Spread of Infectious Disease Vectors
Predicting the Future Spread of Infectious Disease Vectors (EmaxHealth/Public Health Agency of Canada, February 4, 2009)
“As global warming raises concerns about potential spread of infectious diseases, a team of researchers has demonstrated a way to predict the expanding range of human disease vectors in a changing world.”
To read the article, click here.
9. A Company Prospers by Saving Poor People’s Lives
A Company Prospers by Saving Poor People’s Lives (New York Times, February 2, 2009)
Over the years, many products have been developed to help save millions of lives in developing countries. The insecticide impregnated mosquito net to fight malaria, water filters to prevent guinea worm, tsetse fly traps to fight sleeping sickness—all these products were developed by Vestergaard-Frandsen, a company whose business is to save the lives of the poor.
To read the article, click here.
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10. Follow-up: Families USA’s Health Action 2009—Global Health Reception
Last week, Families USA’s Global Health Initiative hosted a reception as part of our Health Action 2009 Conference. We were pleased to have Rear Admiral Ali S. Khan, MD, MPH, Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Director of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne, and Enteric Diseases at CDC speak at the reception about his expertise in zoonotic diseases. As a leading CDC expert on global health, emerging infectious diseases, and bioterrorism, he has traveled to “hot spots” to combat hantavirus, SARS, Ebola, and other deadly pathogens.
We also showed a short video clip from CNN’s Planet in Peril: Battle Lines. This video clip explores how various infectious and highly lethal diseases are transmitted from animals to humans, and how these diseases are tracked.
To view Dr. Khan’s presentation, click here.
For more information about CNN’s Planet in Peril: Battle Lines, click here.
To read the CNN article, Tracking Deadly Viruses' Spread from Animals to Humans, click here.
Thank you to all who attended the reception.
11. Spotlight: The Global Fight against HIV/AIDS
Date: February 19, 2009
Time: 10:00am-12:00pm
Place: Gaston Hall, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Host: Georgetown Center for Nonprofit Leadership
For more information and to RSVP, click here.
12. Symposium: Biomedical Approaches to HIV/AIDS Prevention
Date: February 24, 2009
Time: 8:30am-5:00pm
Place: Mission Bay Conference Center, San Francisco, CA
Hosts: The University of California San Francisco—Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS)
For more information, click here.
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